The Shortest War
by WolfbrotherTitan
Summary: What happens if Harry doesn't tell the Minister that Voldemort is back at the end of 4th year? This Harry sees the writing on the wall before he can make enemies, but in doing so changes just a couple things and this takes him to Gringotts where this one change has lasting changes to his world. One-shot.


**Basic truth: I do not own the Harry Potter franchise, I don't even know own stock in any of the companies that hold rights to the stories.**

The Shortest War

After fourth year ended Harry Potter had seen a boy only a few years older than himself die before his very eyes, all for what should have been a good end to a tournament he'd never meant to be a part of, a choice of his, to share the win with the other boy, it should have been the start of a friendship. Then, as if that wasn't enough, a traitor performed a ritual with Harry's own blood, among other bits and pieces of people, to restore to the world one of the darkest wizards in recent memory. Through a bit of luck Harry escaped only to be captured again less than an hour later by a man he should have been able to trust, once more having his life put in danger.

Needless to say, he wasn't a happy young wizard as the year ended, but at least he'd been smart enough to recognize that Fudge, the Minister of Magic, hadn't wanted to hear that Voldemort, the recently re-embodied evil git, was back; instead he placed the blame fully on Peter Pettigrew, the traitor. Fudge was somewhat willing to consider that possibility, even if he did think Sirius Black, Harry's innocent godfather, was more likely the villain. Still, he promised Harry he'd rescind the kiss on sight order for Sirius and have a warrant put out for Peter, a rather serious change in his position that was partly made possible by the fact that the boy-who-lived, Harry, wasn't supporting Dumbledore's, he of too many positions of power for any one man to hold, position of Voldemort being back. Fudge also thought that it might just mean Harry would support the Ministry over Dumbledore and, as a once famous defeater of dark creatures named Gilderoy Lockhart had once discovered, Harry was good press…well, he could be, and Fudge was determined to use Harry to help ensure his next election as Minister.

Dumbledore had given Harry a disappointed look, but at the urging of Madam Pomfrey, the school nurse, had left Harry to sleep. Harry had then been forced to spend the last week of term dodging the headmaster and even ignoring several requests to go to the Head's office, it quickly got so bad that he couldn't go to meals in the Great Hall and had to use the rather excellent map his father had helped to make in his school days to stay away from most of the rest of the school. His 'friends' Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley seemed to be on the Headmaster's side, they'd tried to stun him to get him to the Head's office for Dumbledore, but Harry was always the best in his year at any practical/combat use of his magic and his two now former friends were stunned and bound before either really knew what had happened.

From that point Harry was always prepared with his wand close at hand and a spell on his lips whenever he came upon anyone in the corridors. Fortunately this had happened only a day before end of term or Harry might well have snapped and started attacking random people; unfortunately, the Headmaster had made an announcement at the leaving feast the previous night and was waiting by the train that was to take the students home for the summer. It was a good plan in as far as it went, but Harry's wonderful map, which Harry almost never deactivated had shown Dumbledore heading out earlier and Harry had prepared for the possibility that the aged Headmaster would attempt something, so had taken to carrying his most precious items with him at all times: the invisibility cloak he'd inherited from his father, the album of pictures Hagrid, his half-giant friend, had given him at the end of first year, and his wand (he'd sent Hedwig, his truest friend, even if she was an owl, away with instructions to find him once he left Hogwarts).

So it was that upon seeing Dumbledore standing at the train station in Hogsmeade that Harry, knowing that the old man could somehow detect him when he used his invisibility cloak, simply turned around and headed for the towns 2nd Inn, a place he'd never been to called the Hogshead.

"Excuse me, but can I use the floo?"

The gruff looking older man behind the dirty bar grunted at him something that sounded like '2 sickles'. Harry nodded back, placed 2 galleons on the bar, being careful to touch it as little as possible and said, "Please give me a head start before letting your big brother know I've gone this way." He'd learned this man was Dumbledore's younger brother when he learned of this Inn from an overheard conversation between some older students.

The old man snorted a laugh, "Boy, Albus is no brother to me, but the usual cost for something like that's a lot more than that." This caused Harry to flush slightly before reaching for his money pouch again, but the old man waved him off, "Don't worry about it, if Albus comes by I'm more likely to break his nose again for him than to help him out." He then waved Harry toward the floo…even if he did keep the gold, he figured it wasn't like he was robbing an orphan…well, he was, but this orphan was rich and…besides, he was going to help and he'd maybe taught the kid something about the world… He snorted and returned to his cleaning glasses…with his dirty rag, and Harry decided he would probably not order anything from this Inn, but since so much of Rosmerta's business was dependent on Hogsmeade weekends it was good for some things at least.

Harry then did something he hadn't for one reason or another managed to do since the summer before 3rd year, he went to Gringotts bank in Diagon Alley whereupon entering a goblin approached him, "Mr. Potter, please follow me," and then the short well-dressed creature turned and started walking off.

Having seconds to figure out what the slightly growly words were he jogged after the surprisingly fast goblin, though in this his time running from his cousin and his gang served him well and he caught up quickly. "Excuse me, but what's this about? I just came in to change some gold for muggle currency," which was true, Harry intended to get some comfortable clothes and wizard clothes would either be decades out of date or horribly out of touch with what most muggles actually wore. He was still probably stuck going to the Dursleys, he was a minor and they were his guardians, but Fudge's promise gave him at least some hope there, since if the traitor was captured Sirius should be exonerated and thus free to take Harry in.

After many twists and turns and going up and down ramps and stairs Harry had no idea where in the bank he might be before the goblin knocked on a door that was, to his eyes at least, just another unremarkable office door like all those he'd walked by before. From inside there was an annoyed grunt of acknowledgement before his guild ushered Harry in and left without a word. The goblin inside the mostly unremarkable office sat with his head down as he scribbled something in a small booklet, he briefly held one clawed hand up, a claw out in a 'wait' motion before pointing at the chair before his desk where Harry sat down nervously.

After a couple minutes the goblin before him closed his ledger before looking up at Harry before he smiled a toothy grin and grumbled, "Humph, well, a wizard with some patience, color me impressed. Now then Mr. Potter, my name is Sharesnot, please note that's pronounced 'Shares not' not 'Share snot', we are named for traits or actions we take when we are still young, and I am not a nice person, but I am your family account manager and some things have come to my attention. Most notably, and most recently, when you entered the bank something was detected. Put simply there are black and malignant magics upon your person and a clause in the agreement with Gringotts that is part of the Potter accounts agreement has been activated, you now have a choice: accept aid in removing these magics from Gringotts for a price to be determined at a later time, or remove your monies and possessions from Gringotts bank. Now, your choice?"

Harry just stared for a moment before asking, "Wait, what? What magics are on me and what do you mean about aid?" He thought about it for a second before saying, "You know what, never mind, if there are 'black and malignant magics' on me I want them removed, as long as I'm consulted about the price first and told the details of what make the magics 'black and malignant' I'm sure I'll want that option."

Sharesnot looked at him briefly before a slow smile formed on his face and he gave a single bark-like laugh, "Good for you boy, the Potter fortunes might be safe after all, though that brings up another point I'd like to address with you. Now then, to start at the beginning," and here he pushed another ledger on his desk at Harry and motioned for him to open it. "This is your account information and activity since your parents' deaths on October 31st, 1981. As you can see, a small sum has been taken from your accounts from this time until present for the stated purpose of your care, it is assumed that this money has been used appropriately as you're still alive and well enough at least. Beyond that there are no issues, your next use of your account corresponds to your starting up at Hogwarts and doesn't exceed expected amounts. This continues until the previous summer whereupon a sum several times your previous spending occurred. This amounted to 10,000 galleons over your normal costs, even taking into account the added costs of dress robes. That said, 5,000 of those galleons have been returned, 500 a month since then, so it is assumed that this was either taken with your approval or that the Weasley clan has stolen from the Ancient and Noble house of Potter. If the former is the case it is Gringotts hope that some form of interest rate was agreed upon or that this is a one-time event, if it is the latter Gringotts will be forced to take…measures, as it would impugn the honor of Gringotts." He leaned forward, placing elbows on his desk and tapping his claws together. Looking expectantly at Harry, Sharesnot asked, "Now then Mr. Potter, which is it?"

Harry didn't really have to think about it, he sighed quietly, "It was a loan Sir…"

"Not 'Sir', Mr. Potter, the proper way of addressing your account manager is 'Master' followed by their name, this is true for any ranking goblin with whom you are not yet closely associated," Sharesnot interrupted. Harry looked slightly annoyed for a moment, causing Sharesnot to grin, sometimes he thought James Potter had corrupted him, once he wouldn't have wasted time like this, but then Charlus Potter passed the headship of the Potter family to James and even a little exposure to James had a corrupting influence.

"Alright, Master Sharesnot, it was a loan, but as a one-time thing and there should be no interest, unfortunately I forgot to get my key back from Mrs. Weasley, so I'd like to negate that key except for the purpose of allowing the loan to be repaid if that's possible."

Now it was Sharesnot's turn to be annoyed, though Harry wasn't honestly sure if it was because the goblin knew he was lying or because it meant Harry had been robbed and he wouldn't' get to be all vengeful goblin on the Weasleys, either way he simply nodded, "That can easily be accomplished, though I will warn you now that the cost for changing the security settings on your account is 100 galleons."

Harry looked down at the ledger in his lap and saw just how much was in his accounts and simply nodded his consent, too shocked to actually say anything. He knew he had gold, but had no idea he had so much; looking at his ledger again he saw that his families investments seemed to bring in hundreds of thousands in galleons a year, he wasn't sure about everything, but it certainly looked like he could afford to be generous…even if he'd rather have been asked first.

Sharesnot continued to go over the Potter accounts with Harry for another 3 hours, teaching him what James and Lily would've been responsible to teach him, it was part of his job and his salary depended on how well each of his accounts did, and the Potter Family was his largest account, but when 3 loud bangs echoed through his office he remembered he was supposed to have sent Harry on to deal with that problem some time ago. Somewhat timidly he called, "Enter," and as the door slammed open he immediately moved around his desk and bowed to the armed and armored goblin standing there.

Harry saw all this and was shocked at the sudden intrusion by a goblin straight from one of Binns' many talks of Goblin Rebellions. When the two goblins began exchanging talk in the goblin language, the imposing goblin harsh and angry, Sharesnot quiet and nervous if Harry was any judge, Harry tried to watch without being too obvious about it.

Eventually the discussion was turned around and many years later Sharesnot would explain that the fact the warrior was armed but not holding the unsheathed weapon was the only reason Harry hadn't been asked to leave before needing to choose a new account manager, as one missing his head after having most of his insides briefly on the outside would make poor business decisions, but for now the armored goblin turned to Harry and gestured for him to follow. Harry looked to Sharesnot, but his head was still bowed, though his hand was making a motion for Harry to hurry, so he ran out after the other, yet unnamed, goblin.

Once more he was led through the halls of Gringotts, though this time he got the distinct impression of going down whereas last time he was left honestly unsure. After a half hour or so of walking the armored goblin stopped before a seemingly blank bit of wall and removed the large hammer from his left side, the sword on his hip and the huge battleaxe on his back weren't touched. The hammer was huge, probably weighing more than Harry and it was being held in one hand; when the goblin hit the wall 3 times there was a loud echoing clang on metal on metal before the outline of a door formed in the wall and it opened without a sound.

Scowling the goblin who emerged looked briefly at the armored goblin before grunting and turning to Harry, seeing the famous scar he glared briefly, "Come in Mr. Potter," he growled.

Complying, Harry quickly did as told and sat down where he was told. "Now then Mr. Potter, we're running short on time…" Harry was beginning to wonder if glaring was the natural state for this goblin, but nodded briefly, acknowledging he was late. Grunting the goblin said, "My name is Glaresalot," Harry suppressed the urge to laugh, apparently this goblin's natural state actually _was_ glaring, "and I am the Priest who has been tasked with explaining your situation. You should have been told that there is something black and malignant affecting your magic; now, black rarely bothers us, and malignant is usually not our concern, but the Potter Family's account specifies that the Heir be protected from such things. This is one of the benefits offered to each family with an account of a certain size at Gringotts, these are among the settings set by the head of family and when you come of age you will have the option of setting this and many other details. For now though this must be dealt with or else Gringotts will have no choice but to close your account, the cost of which is a 10% of the Net value of all within your vaults."

He smiled nastily at that but Harry didn't blink and Glaresalot scowled before continuing, "As I was saying, black magics are set as a low priority at present, but malignant magics are set as high priority; in this case there's a piece of foreign soul attached to that 'scar' on your forehead."

Harry looked appropriately horrified by that and Glaresalot smiled slightly. Harry eventually managed to ask, "Voldemort's?"

Raising an eyebrow as he wasn't familiar with many wizards willing to say the name, Glaresalot nodded, "Yes Mr. Potter, that is our belief. Fortunately, this is easily solved, though not quickly. Usually such soul pieces are in non-living things, so the time it takes to dispose of them is of little consequence, in the rare case where it is in a living being the process usually lasts between a week to a month and the subject will be in extreme pain the whole time, even to the point of being in a near death like state much of the time."

Harry thought Glaresalot looked much too happy about that, but nodded, "When can we start?"

Glaresalot grunted and motioned for Harry to lay back, "About an hour ago would've been good," he grumbled, but none the less as Harry lay down he began a chant in a language that didn't sound like the goblin language, Harry was curious at first, but soon fell asleep.

Sometime later he woke with a scream and kept screaming until he went hoarse with it. Once he could no longer scream the pain seemed to double and then triple, until he had no way of comparing the pain, and something about the ritual kept Harry awake and conscious. As the days passed Harry would have odd moments of being able to scream which seemed to help, he was always conscious, the magic sustained him and the goblins would occasionally force potions or water down his throat.

Nineteen days later Harry finally fell unconscious, his body showed the signs of heavy and continual stress; he was thinner than he'd been since the days where he used to get locked in his cupboard for days without food, and his eyes were showing the strain of having been awake for so long.

Meanwhile, as Harry finally fell asleep as specter of black smoke rose from his scar, the goblins present did nothing but smirk at seeing that their work was complete. Slowly the smoke man drifted off, if Glaresalot had been given more time he might have explained that they never tried to stop the soul piece from leaving since they understood that the being who could do such a thing couldn't take back what they'd thrown away without a heavy cost.

The being called Lord Voldemort had used the home of his muggle father's family when he was weak, but now that he had his body back he took a place more deserving of him, he took over the home of his wealthiest Death Eater, Lucius Malfoy.

Malfoy was a grand old estate…though since the Malfoy family wasn't really English for more than the last few generations it used to be called something else, but Voldemort never cared about such things. Privately he didn't even care about the blood purity issue seeing as he was technically a half-blood, though being descended from Salazar Slytherin himself made him more pure than any pure-blood in his own mind.

Since his return he was overjoyed to find the Ministry so far into Malfoy's pockets, though of course, he wasn't thrilled that he'd had to wait so long as a wraith…and to have Peter Pettigrew be the only one who came to him was an insult, but it was what he had.

Now though, he'd spent the last few weeks trying to find Harry Potter. According to Severus Snape, his spy in Dumbledore's ranks, Harry had denied Voldemort's return and upset Dumbledore's positions, it had made him clear the room so he could laugh his cold cruel laugh, it seemed that the boy-who-lived might be growing away from Dumbledore. Still, he'd made the offer to Harry before and been turned down, he wouldn't offer again, it was bad form; besides, the escape Harry had managed had damaged Voldemort's own standing among his Death Eaters. He'd had to torture a few to correct that problem, but it's not as if that was much of an issue to him.

Three weeks after term had ended, three weeks since anyone had seen Harry, and, unknown to Voldemort, two days after the ritual in Gringotts had ended and the smoke wraith had slowly drifted off it showed up at the wards of Malfoy manner. When Voldemort moved into Malfoy manner he'd had most of the original wards removed and redid them himself, he was more powerful and skilled than those who had made the original ward scheme after all…in his own mind at least. The truth was a bit different since he wasn't skilled enough to build on what had already been there; if he had been then the wraith might never have gotten in and would've had to wait until Voldemort came out. As is, the wraith was a part of Voldemort and had no trouble bypassing the new ward scheme he'd built up, but it was slowed slightly.

As it happens, it took the wraith almost a full day to get to the throne room Voldemort had turned the Malfoy ballroom into and it appeared in the middle of Voldemort torturing Severus for failing again to turn up information about Harry's whereabouts. It moved so slowly it wasn't even noticed at first, but when it blocked a torch's light some Death Eaters reacted and Voldemort turned. He was briefly confused, it was moving towards him, it moved just fast enough for him to tell that, but he had no idea what it could be, so he launched a spell at it, a spell that passed right through. He watched it briefly and called, "Peter, come before me."

When Peter hesitated he turned from the now close wraith to glare and the rat like man hurried to his side and knelt. Voldemort kicked the man into the wraith and Peter tumbled though unharmed, though also unmanned, he'd screamed like the rodent he is, he'd even peed himself and Voldemort turned away from the rat man in disgust. He dismissed his Death Eaters then so he could study this thing. He tried various spells, but nothing could touch it. Lost in thought he didn't notice just how close he'd paced to it and it slowly reached up towards him, but even then, its arm was so slow it was several paces before he came back and brushed against it and screamed in pain!

Now he was angry at this thing and wanted it gone, rather than testing randomly he started flinging spells at it, but for some reason it was moving faster now, so, deciding to end this thing he intoned, "Avada Kadavra!" and the green light rushed out and touched the thing, killing it instantly, just as the spell was meant to, but now he'd done the one thing he shouldn't for he'd killed a part of himself with a spell that rips the soul away, a spell that negated the heart of what allowed him to survive so long. The horcrux spell has 3 weaknesses, though Voldemort only knew of two, it could be destroyed by fiendfyre or basilisk venom, two things that are so destructive that the soul container simply couldn't handle them, or it could be destroyed by its creator, but the only way he knew to do that was to repent the crime and draw the soul piece back to himself, a painful process that few Dark Lords had ever survived.

What he did destroyed his link to the soul containers anchoring him to the world, he had discovered that this wraith the goblins had made was like forcing the creator to destroy the horcrux, it probably would've killed him when it tried to rejoin him, but him using the death curse had the side effect of telling his soul anchors that he was committing suicide, something the spells couldn't save him from.

In the brief moment of panic he had as he suddenly realized he was dying he drew strongly on his magic, but the horcrux spell couldn't save him from himself no matter how much of his magic he poured into it, like can't fight like; so he drew upon the magic of his marked Death Eaters and suddenly found it countering the effect, he felt himself grow stronger again!

Alas, his Death Eaters were mostly fairly weak wizards, they'd never needed to be too strong since they attacked in groups and used spells that couldn't be blocked easily, they killed and created fear to the point where their victims didn't even fight back. There were exceptions of course, but overall the power to sustain his soul was too much and Death Eaters started dropping where they were, the lucky ones made it to St. Mungo's where they were quickly treated for magical exhaustion. Those fast enough would live just long enough to be reduced to just above a squib, none of the others were even that lucky and died with shocked expressions on their faces.

And just like that, a war that hadn't quite begun again was ended and the world Harry Potter woke up to would never be the same.

The End…for now at least

**This story was inspired by the last scene in Silently Watches story 'What Happens in Vegas', chapter 10. I don't know what he thought of or has planned for that scene, but it made me think up this. Here's hoping you like it. Before anyone comments, the Goblin names here were just for fun, but if I had to justify why my goblins have names like these where other goblins are named like Griphook I'd say that most of those still qualify as too young to have names like these or they happen to come from a different clan. **

**I didn't really want to bash anyone here, but Hermione is very much a follower when it comes to authority figures and Ron has betrayed Harry before, so I didn't think either of those were stretching things and Dumbledore isn't really a bad guy here, he's honestly disappointed in Harry for not telling the full truth. He sees it as a moment where Harry did what was easy rather than what was right. Yes, Molly did steal from Harry here, but she was paying it back, and I picture part of her reasoning being that the car incident at the beginning of 2****nd**** year came with fines the family couldn't afford, and maybe they took out a trust loan that had to be paid back in full within a certain time limit, and saving the whole sum would be hard for them.**

**I want to make this clear, the goblins did NOT do this to help Harry, they did it because it's in their contract with the Potter's and the Potter Family is VERY rich here.**

**I have of course read stories where killing Voldemort kills the Death Eaters so that idea isn't new, and it certainly wouldn't make the world completely better, but it does change the world.**

**One other issue here, this is one month in the life of Harry Potter, and for most of that he's in incredible pain, if I do continue this he'll be physically weakened by this process, but there are certain other things I can think of that would make it up to him.**


End file.
